German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday urged China to be as transparent as possible about the coronavirus outbreak, as Beijing faces mounting pressure over its management of the crisis.

Critics have accused China of downplaying the scale and scope of the outbreak when it first emerged late last year, while conspiracy theories have swirled in the US the virus could have been leaked from a lab.

Merkel urged for more information about the early days of the outbreak, which originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

"I believe the more transparent China is about the origin story of the virus, the better it is for everyone in the world in order to learn from it," Merkel told reporters in Berlin Monday.

Chinese scientists say the virus was likely first transmitted to humans at a wet market where wild animals were sold.

Unproven theories that the virus came from a maximum-security virology lab in Wuhan have been raised by US officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who has said an investigation was under way into how the virus "got out into the world".

The Wuhan Institute of Virology has strongly rejected claims it could be the source of the outbreak, calling it "impossible".

Chinese authorities have been accused of initially downplaying the outbreak and last week authorities in Wuhan admitted mistakes in counting their death toll and revised the figure up by 50 percent.

French President Emmanuel Macron last week told the Financial Times it would be "naive" to think China had handled the pandemic well, adding: "There are clearly things that have happened that we don't know about."

In Britain, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said China will face "hard questions" about the coronavirus outbreak, namely "how it came about and how it couldn't have been stopped earlier".

Australia meanwhile has called for an independent investigation into the global response to the pandemic, including the World Health Organization's handling of the crisis.

Its foreign minister has said the country would "insist" on a review that would probe, in part, China's response to the outbreak.

China rejects Australia's call for probe into virus response
Beijing (AFP) April 20, 2020 - China on Monday rejected Australia's call for a probe examining the global response to the coronavirus pandemic -- including Beijing's early handling of the outbreak.

Washington and several allies have accused China of failing to adequately respond to the viral disease threat in the weeks after it was first detected in the central city of Wuhan late last year.

US President Donald Trump also cut funding to the World Health Organization after accusing it of mismanaging the crisis and covering up the seriousness of the initial outbreak before it spread around the world and killed more than 165,000 people.

But Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the accusations disrespected "the Chinese people's tremendous efforts and sacrifices" in fighting the contagion.

"Any question about China's transparency in the prevention and control of epidemic situation is not in line with facts," Geng told a regular press briefing.

He was speaking in response to a question about Australian foreign minister Marise Payne, who a day earlier said her country would "insist" on the probe into the response by Beijing and the WHO.

Authorities in Wuhan initially tried to cover up the outbreak, punishing doctors who had raised the alarm online in December.

There were also questions about China's recording of COVID-19 infections, as it repeatedly changed its counting criteria at the peak of the outbreak.

Chinese scientists have rejected conspiracy theories pushed by some in the US government claiming the virus could have originated at a maximum-security virology lab in Wuhan.

But Trump has suggested that China could have been "knowingly responsible" for spreading the infection and could face consequences as a result.

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Global health emergencies: A rarely used call to action
Geneva (AFP) Jan 22, 2020
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is holding emergency talks Thursday in Geneva to decide whether a deadly virus outbreak in China constitutes a "public health emergency of international concern". The designation is rare and only used for the gravest outbreaks which are considered "serious, sudden, unusual or unexpected". The classification would imply that the disease, which has killed nine people so far, risks spreading further internationally and requires an international response. The ... read more